Blog Archives

I always hear how much meetings suck. (If you lead meetings, you’ll find detailed guidance on making your meetings better here, here, and here.) But what if you’re not leading the meeting — what if you’re just suffering through it?…

Jake is a terrific member of his fast-growing company’s senior leadership team. His boss Darcy, the owner, is a sweet lady with great personal skills. That complements Jake’s tough, task-oriented, ramrod approach. Odds are good Darcy will one day sell…

CEOs often have senior leaders who don’t “get a seat at the strategy table.” These are usually Directors or VPs who oversee support functions — this happens most notoriously with directors of HR and IT. It’s a tremendous lost opportunity,…

Good meetings are the nerve centers of a good organization. Here are the three meetings every organization should have – and how to make yours better. Meeting 1 – the Daily Huddle Duration: 5 to 15 minutes. Purpose: Prepare…

Some of our biggest problems are self inflicted. One of the worst is a mental mistake called “judging others by ourselves.” Young children do this all time. If they like lollipops, they just assume everybody likes lollipops. Young managers do…

“Aren’t I coddling him?” asks Sara, my client. I’m coaching her on handling her emotionally explosive subordinate, Joan, who a week earlier had erupted in a fit of yelling, then had dropped her ID card on Sara’s desk and gone home.…

Of the CEO’s four major responsibilities — Culture, Budget, Strategy, and building the senior Team — I believe the hardest and most important is building the team. Jim Collins, the author of “Good to Great” and “Great by Choice” among…

Today the pressure is on for every greater forecasting accuracy — margins of error are smaller — yet the variables seem bigger and less predictable. Every business must forecast (or should). Yet over 90% of businesses make basic mistakes that…

According to data collected by Stephen M R Covey, high trust teams and companies out-perform their low trust competitors by 4 to 1. High trust, in addition to being more profitable, is also less stressful and more fun. Here’s one thing you can do immediately to start raising trust levels in your own immediate circle at work — with the humble job description.

The whole concept of “work life balance” may be completely wrong. Rather than a zero-sum game — give up work hours to gain play time — new research shows we can turbocharge our work time by investing in and prioritizing play.

“The key,” says energy expert Al Lee, is to “rhythmically create, spend, and renew energy.” The result is highly productive workdays that don’t leave you exhausted.

Ultimately, powerful results do not come from grinding ourselves down, burning ourselves out or using ourselves up. Our best performance comes from working in harmony with the rhythmic way our brains and bodies want to work.

In today’s business world, the old time management techniques are no longer enough. With the increasing pace of change, the pressures of downsizing and the growing expectation of instant communication and fast responsiveness, the tools and practices you used to manage your time are outdated. Here are seven rules for extreme time management that will put you back in control of your time and your life.

Sadly, most people seem to make one of two mistakes. Either they embrace the worst sort of toxic stress — dramatically reducing their work effectiveness and that of their people … or they mistakenly treat all stress as bad — denying themselves the growth and rewards of good stress.